A FALSE STALK. 39 



innumerable, it suddenly disappeared behind a rock 

 beneath which it had been previously lying, and we 

 saw it no more. There was no time now to be wasted. 

 Whatever it might be, we could lose but little by fol- 

 lowing it up ; and, should it prove to be a deer, we 

 might yet be fully rewarded. Accordingly, we set off 

 at a brisk pace, keeping a most careful look-out, but 

 arrived within a couple of hundred yards of the rock 

 without seeing anything more. We now began to pro- 

 ceed very cautiously, at times even creeping on our 

 knees ; and at length we reached the rock itself, crept 

 round the end of it and still nothing was visible. 

 After a moment's survey, Walter detected the red 

 object again, lying down as before, but still in so indis- 

 tinct a position that nothing could we make of it. 

 Again, therefore, we began cautiously to creep on our 

 hands and knees ; when suddenly I was startled by a 

 loud hearty laugh proceeding from Walter, and on 

 looking before me, instead of a deer, saw a fine red fox 

 bounding away over the heather bearing off a grouse in 

 his jaws. 



Walter fired, but Reynard's life seemed charmed, 

 and the ball flattened on a rock close by him. I then 

 brought my rifle to my shoulder, and, taking a very 

 deliberate aim, by good fortune doubled him up. We 

 were tempted to slay him, not only in revenge for the 

 disappointment he had caused us, but from the accounts 

 Donald had given us of his destructiveness. Scotch 

 foxes are longer in the leg, and altogether stronger, 

 than most of their brethren south of the Tweed, though 

 1 believe Welsh foxes are very similar; and in the 

 severe weather they are very daring in their attacks on 

 the sheep ; so that, besides avenging ourselves for the 

 trick played upon us by our vulpine enemy, we had 

 also done no slight service to the shepherd. 



